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Clarke County's name honors Revolutionary War hero

Posted: Sunday, June 17, 2001

By Tommie Phillips LaCavera

When Clarke County was created by legislative act on Dec. 5, 1801, it was named for Revolutionary hero General Elijah Clarke. Best remembered for his victory over the British at the Battle of Kettle Creek his contributions to Georgia encompass far more than that one battle.

Clarke was born in North Carolina around 1733, but little else is known about his early life. He married Hannah Harrington, daughter of a prominent North Carolina family, and the first of their eight children was born in 1766. Shortly afterwards, the family moved to South Carolina and from there to Georgia in the newly opened ''ceded lands'' of Georgia's northwestern frontier.

Clarke had little education and apparently never learned to read or write. At the time of his move to Georgia he had neither slaves nor servants, and he had to borrow money to make the initial payment on the 150 acres he purchased.

In 1774 Clarke joined with other prominent settlers in signing a petition against anti-British activities in the province.

When a local militia was organized, Clarke was elected captain. He was wounded in a battle with the Cherokee in 1776, yet a year later he led his men against the Creek. In 1778 he became a lieutenant colonel in the state troops and was again wounded during Georgia's unsuccessful invasion of British East Florida.

When the American Revolution broke out, Clarke was commissioned a Lt. Colonel and served with Andrew Pickens. On Feb. 14, 1779, he played a major role in the defeat of 600 Loyalists at Kettle Creek.

In May 1780 all of Georgia and most of South Carolina again fell under British control. After his unsuccessful attack upon Augusta in September, Clarke led more than 500 men and children from Wilkes County to present-day Tennessee to escape Indians and Loyalists. During this time Clarke and some 30 followers began guerilla tactics, inflicting heavy damage against the British and giving Clarke a reputation as a major partisan leader. In June 1781, Clarke led Georgians in the final recovery of Augusta. A year later the British withdrew from Savannah and the war ended in Georgia.

Elijah Clarke Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution

The Elijah Clarke Chapter, NSDAR, was organized in Athens on Feb. 12, 1901. One of the first projects undertaken by the Chapter, the 30-foot-high monument to Gen. Elijah Clarke, was unveiled Nov. 4, 1904. University of Georgia Chancellor Walter B. Hill was orator for the ceremony, which included participation by the University of Georgia battalion and the Athens Guards. Originally located at the corner of College and Hancock streets, the monument was moved to its present location on Broad Street by 1918.

After the British were cleared from the state, the veterans were able to buy thousands of acres of land that had belonged to the Loyalists. The state gave the plantation of Thomas Waters, a particularly notorious Tory, to Clarke and made frequent grants to him. Even after the war was over, Clarke continued to serve the militia. When he finally retired he had reached the rank of brigadier general.

In May, 1794, General Clarke led a group of followers and their families into the disputed Oconee territory with the intention of creating an independent government, known as the Trans-Oconee Republic. He began erecting settlements and fortifications to the alarm of both Georgia and the United States. This came to an end on Sept., 28, 1794, when Clarke surrendered to a large force of Georgia and Federal troops even though his men voted to stand their ground. Clarke, now past 60, went home to Hannah in Wilkes County.

Elijah Clarke died a popular hero on Dec. 15, 1799, one day after George Washington died. Hannah lived to be 90. Both were buried at the home plantation ''Woodburn'' in Lincoln County. When this area was covered by Clark's Hill Reservoir, their remains were moved to the entrance of the Elijah Clarke State Park on the banks of Clark's Hill Lake.

An early settler of Clarke County once said:

''If I were asked to name the man who was most to be dreaded by the savage foe, who rendered the greatest service to the exposed frontier, who was ever foremost in doing or attempting whatever was best for the security and advancement of the State... -- who, whilst he lived made himself strongly felt wherever he took part -- and who now, when we look back, continues still to be seen in the mind's eye, stalking sternly with his armor on, across the troublous spaces which he so bravely filled in our dim historic past -- his stalwart war-hardened form yet dominant on the theatre where he so long wont at different periods to suffer, fight, and strive for Georgia, not against the Indians only but against the British and the Tories also ... my prompt answer would be Elijah Clarke.''

Tommie Phillips LaCavera is a free-lance writer and historian focusing on the women in Georgia's history. She is a native Georgian and a member of the Elijah Clarke Chapter National Society DAR.

This article published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Sunday, June 17, 2001.